Spirituality and religion are two realms that can be mutually exclusive but happen to coincide more often than necessary. If I dare use this comparison: I view Spirituality as the victim of a psychologically abusive abductor in the form of Religion. This may be quite a sensitive subject because, as Stockholm syndrome would dictate, we have fallen in love with our capturer. We are under the illusion, a comfortable subjective truth, that Religion is dogma—that religion is absolute truth, that religion is our savior. Since our capturer has provided all of our spiritual pfood, shelter, comfort, and fulfillment—it must certainly be the complete gamma of what spirituality has to offer. We have identified with our capturer so much so that some of us have laid down our lives in the name of our religion. Some of us have murdered in the name of our religion. Some of us have stolen innocence and destroyed entire cultures in the name of our religion. Some have sacrificed our first born in the name of our religion. So, what is this phenomenon known as religion and why is it distinguishable from spirituality?

Is there more to a spirit than what the constraints of language, imagery, expectation, and imagination can conceive?

I consider Religion a parasite. A contrived parasite that has latched on to something very real that is spirituality– a living breathing entity that is constantly evolving. As per my philosophy we (at least a fair portion of us) are light or spirit beings having a human experience. However one may choose to articulate the matter: whether we be vibrational beings, energy beings, or light beings to me it is all leading to the same source. One’s spirituality can not be denied or hidden. Most have an innate sense that we’re here for a “greater purpose”. Most have an unquenchable thirst to know “why” they are “here”. The seed has been sown in all of us. Now this journey to the source isn’t necessary easy or necessarily our purpose. But religion has provided a gross over-simplification of a complex issue.

Religion has taken the concept of spirituality and held it hostage. What is meant to be a means of freedom, a means of open communication of information, a medium of exchange, a medium of healing, a medium of empowerment has been replaced. It has been replaced with strict dogmas that reduce everything to the black and white. It has been replaced with spiritual atrophy. Man is convinced to disempower themselves and allow for their savior or external source to dictate the fates of their lives.

Many of the underdeveloped gifts that spirituality has bestowed upon us bleed through the oppression of religion. There are revelatory gifts that some encompass in which religion cannot quiet. There are untapped resources of physical self-healing that exist despite being taught otherwise. They call it the placebo effect—but it’s nothing more than the nescient or nascent ability of the mind to heal using our spiritual strengths. Some of us have the ability to manifest our own futures by “speaking things into existence” and others have the ability of foresight (to know what is to come of us). Ever been thinking of something and the person next to you seemingly reads your mind—and verbalizes what you were thinking? Perhaps this was preverbal spiritual truth—how we as beings communicated before our de-evolution into our current state.

I do not know all of the gifts that our spirits have to offer but I am aware enough to know that they exist and have courage enough not to deny their presence. But this is not an exposition of man’s gifts. This is an exposition of how the regulation of these gifts has been used to victimize us. How these gifts have been stifled and replaced with a rudimentary quality of life and existence. Some of the most powerful beings on this planet have the slightest idea of their potential. Brilliant minds and brilliant souls are falling to the wayside. –And in the name of what?

Now I don’t want to completely condemn religion because it does have its place. It can be the building block of something special. It teaches discipline and can provide a launching off point of where spirituality can take us. We all have various levels of intelligence and discernment and maybe religion can be something great for a portion of society. But to deem it the end all be all is tragic– fatal. And it keeps the gifted among us from being valued, from elevating our species, and helping to repair our collective consciousness.

How do we break the chains of our oppressor? How do we leave our oppressor if we love our oppressor? Is being in captivity so bad if I’m being taken care of?

When one manipulates the possibilities of the inevitable it impedes growth. When you start people off and dictate the end result of their life before they are even born there is no room for growth. Their whole life is oriented towards achieving one destination or avoiding the other. Spirits are meant to grow, expand, engage, create, and so forth. None of this is possible when the possibilities don’t exist in the mind…If the possibilities can’t even be fathomed.. The existence can’t even begin to be manifested…

Kara Walker’s piece ” A Subtlety” is the launch point of this blog. An image that has provided the impetus for an exploration of our subconscious mind’s primary motif– an artistic requiem of glory lost.

Front depiction of the sculpture…A rear view of the sculpture…

This blog will begin to scratch the surface regarding the significance of the image of the Black Woman. It is a reflection upon the restoration of the Black-woman archetype and her/its importance to humanity.

One look upon Kara Walker’s work opens up the vastness of a million portals–portals leading to truths of both past and present. In this larger-than-life sculpture, Kara depicts a modern rendition of a Sphinx like figure. We have the likeness of a woman crafted out of all white sugar. The woman has a “mammy” resemblance to her that is accentuated by the adornment of her crown with a scarf–something you may be used to seeing atop the head of Harriet Tubman. Her bust is large and exposed as if she were offering her bosom for suckling to any onlooker. In place of an animal body the figure maintains its womanly-curvaceous physique. All capped off by a vagina exposed from the rear view of the sculpture. Depending on the frame of reference of the viewer, we have a hyper-sexualized image of a woman. All the while the woman has a smirk on her face. Almost like she is taunting the observer to explore the depths that she has to offer. As if to say you can scratch the surface but you have the slightest idea how deep it can get.

We can juxtapose this image to that of the actual Sphinx. The image of a regal guardian spirit that stands poised in protecting her city– from a spiritual stand point and an authoritative stand point– a guardian queen if you will.

The two images side by side depict how far the Black Woman has been exiled from her thrown. And also the moral degradation that has gone hand in hand with this vanquishing of her archetype…

power

The archetype of the Black Woman has a universally visceral response to all that experience it. Her presence is never subtle. It is encompassing and this is evident on both a conscious and subconscious level. The vibrations that her spirit gives off is undeniable and often commands respect in one fashion or another.

She has fallen from the Creator-of-Man era…

To the Queen– the Ruler-of-Man era..

To the Mammy the Caretaker-of-Man era….

Too the hyper-sexualized– the Whore-of-Man era…

And along with her fall from grace has come the destruction of societal morality and spirituality. Yet her fall has not been of a natural order. It has been carried out in a systematic manner by the would be ruler of the present era. Her ruling archetype type has been assaulted and bombarded by her rival and polar opposite that of the White Male. A patriarchal dominated society who’s morality encompasses all but not limited to: greed, avarice, licentiousness, wanton, gluttony, selfishness, and anything else that appeals to one’s flesh induced desires.
This patriarchal archetype whether it be consciously or subconsciously is perpetually attempting to strip the Black female archetype of all power and authority. Yet as the “Subtlety” has proven… You can change her image but she will never leave her post…

As per popular culture the image of the Black woman is both imitated and mocked. There is a relentless assault upon the motif of the Black Woman. She is often both ridiculed and mimicked–creating a paradox of a unique kind. On the one level she is mocked but on a deeper level she can’t help but to be imitated as she is the purveyor of all civilization.

There is attempt to bring about a new way among the people of this planet. The key to providing the perfect segue into this way of being is the removal of our humanity. And the cornerstone of our humanity is the Black woman. There is an attempt to usher in a new era. One in which man is devoid of spirituality… Devoid of uniqueness.. Devoid of his bond with the universe… Supplanting himself as above or without integration into nature.. Almost as though we were transfiguring ourselves into machines…

Our humanity is what is at stake. There is a war going on that no man is safe from. And if we don’t protect our guardians on the most basic of levels. How do we expect them to protect us on the most critical of level–that which can not be seen and is ever changing? How long can they stand guard if they lack sense of Self? And we lack sense of perspective?

If I look back I see infinity… A lil further back I recognize pyramids…in aww at the wonders they’ve allowed me to explore… I look a lil further back and dragons.. I see myself encased in androgyny…

I gather a whiff… Engrossed is the spilled blood of my ancestors…

But the flame from the beast’s nostrils… Awakens me and draws us back to the present…

The flesh of my flesh witnesses it all… Has witnessed it all… And will continue to witness it all…From amulets… To chains… To marches.. To boycotts… To content.. To regression.. To invisible chains around the neck of a beast restrained…

Devoid of all distinguishable features…made less daunting… Stripped of noble stature…

Transformation of a lion to a common alley cat…

Yet the future is beyond the horizon… Not as close as some would like… But not as far as others should fear… A future that underlines the beginning… For all things lead back into themselves… Such is the nature of the Infinite…

Recently, I listened to a lecture by Dick Gregory via YouTube. He brought up an interesting distinction that I would like to elaborate upon. During his lecture he made the distinction between Wisdom and Intellect. I’m paraphrasing, but he implied that there was a time when a good majority of people (Americans, citizens, ancestors, ect.) operated through wisdom, as opposed to now where the majority of individuals use “intellect” to drive their decisions. At first I assumed one complemented the other but upon further contemplation they really couldn’t be further from each other.

As it is the spirit of Wisdom is far from a modern phenomenon. Societies and cultures of antiquity have prayed for Wisdom, have created monuments representing Wisdom, and have had deities that are Wisdom. You see Wisdom is all encompassing; it operates out of a sense of completeness, wholeness, an “all things considered” type of energy if you will. Wisdom is timeless and its knowledge knows no bounds. Wisdom cannot be manipulated for it was enacted before man and will be long after man. Wisdom draws upon the infinite and is innately communicated to us through our “ancient brain”. It is an accumulation of all the decisions that our DNA has made and scenarios our DNA has witnessed that has been passed down from one generation to the next. When one chooses to operate through wisdom one is operating outside of themselves. They are not only activating an inner truth but tapping into a collective consciousness that is far beyond the scope of the individual.

Now, the folly comes into play when we compare intellect with Wisdom. I consider Wisdom to be a feminine aura and intellect to be a masculine spirit. It may be arbitrary as to why but it’s simply the sense that I gather. Intellect, as opposed to Wisdom, is a very autonomous phenomenon. Intellect becomes unique to each scenario that it encounters; it tends to me amorphous and shifts to fit its current situation. It isn’t necessarily rooted in the past at least not a distant past. Intellect is greatly tied to its brother logic. Logic can be twisted and manipulated from issue to issue and sequence to sequence. As opposed to Wisdom, logic is a very convincing mechanism. Wisdom teaches and explains it does not persuade. Logic’s sole purpose is to convince the observer that “something” must be right. Logic relies heavily upon our sentient ability to process. And of course any master manipulator can use one’s five senses against themselves. There are infinite strands of logic and the observer can pick and choose any strand they want to rationalize literally any decision that they make. For example, there are people roaming this earth that are convinced that they are “in love” with an inanimate object. Now these are otherwise seemingly normal people, yet some strand of logic they have latched onto has allowed them to believe they are “in love” with an inanimate object. This has profound implications.

For those who dictate the logic are able to dictate the output of men. The output of a man’s mind is aligned with the reality that that man perceives.

Logic and intellect can make slaves of us all if we allow it. Wisdom is the ruler of all logic and queen of all intellect. When I make certain decisions I tend to abandon as much intellect as possible and operate outside of the conventional. I seek Wisdom and always keep the bigger picture in mind. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. In matters having to do with the matrix of reality that we operate within, I utilize the conventional. But in matters that involve the nature of men and men’s actions, I rely heavily upon Wisdom. For a system is quite logical and predictable, men tend to anomalies.

Tattoos are a touchy subject. What was at one time considered taboo is now totally main stream—and quite popular. My belief in tattoos derives from my overall belief structure. I believe that there is a world beyond that which our sentient selves can perceive. I believe this world is both parallel with our world yet beyond our world. Some may articulate it as “life after death”. Some may describe it as purgatory or the underworld. While some may describe it as a “Spiritual side” as most of us are spiritual beings. There is an array of nomenclatures to choose from. I do not have a clear cut articulation of this dimension or even how it is connected to the physical plane of existence that we live in, but every so often life throws a hint or two. There is a crack in the cosmic egg if you will and elements tend to bleed through.

I do believe in what some would call “demons” or “angels “or “gods” or however you want to classify them—spirits (energy). I do believe that these entities are beyond ordinary perception. I do believe they have some sort of vested interest in us and our current reality. I do believe some of these entities are benevolent, some are nefarious, some are indifferent and many are after their own self-interest. I do not believe these entities are not necessarily eternal, but I do believe as beings with souls that we are eternal. I do believe to an extent these entities are dependent upon us as a source of energy (a type of renewable resource), and they draw upon this energy in various manners. One popular method is through prayer: a manner in which a person voluntarily gives forth their focus and energy to an outside entity. Some entities may establish symbiotic bonds; some may feed off of pain, fear, and devastation; and some may use skillful manipulation to obtain what they need. Some of these being are more powerful than others. Some have different capabilities than others. Some have different limitations than others. Some are bound by time. Some are bound by place. And some are bound by rituals: ie incantations(songs), patterned movements (dance), sacred acts (sex,murder,etc.), opening of gateways (sex, drugs, alcohol, mutilation, tattoos). Any of the above acts creates vulnerabilities within the soul to invite said entities in. The most subtle and powerful manner of entry is through thought. Thoughts are their greatest means and their greatest mode of operation. Thoughts are innocuous; most don’t take the time to consider where their thoughts are coming from. And if thoughts are listened to enough they start to become a part of who you are. They are repeated frequently enough that you begin to build a level of comfort with the thoughts and even start to identify with them. Thoughts lead to beliefs, beliefs lead to actions, what you do in a way makes you who you are.

This leads to my beliefs regarding tattoos. I do believe tattoos are one of those gateways. In a sense they are walking billboards marketing and commercializing your vulnerabilities. They often times advertise which entities would have the best chance of entering or rather impose suggestive influence or rather afflict the person. In a sense tattoos are a means of branding, a walking bill board if you will– a manner of free marketing to those who are open to suggestion. I believe even the most harmless of tattoos can leave one open for suggestion. All it takes is time and effort and a seed planted for suggestion to eventually manifest. All it takes is for one small chink in the armor and eventually persistence will find its way in.

Thus I’m always cautious around people, and understand that when I’m around certain people that their actions may not be fully their actions. I understand that their actions are a conglomerate of complex occurrences. And I understand that if I choose to connect with these people on any level, I am not simply connecting with them on this physical plane but also on another level. That the fact that I am choosing to connect with them, I am connecting with all that comes along with them.